Dry heat sterilizer for animal bedding and cages

The University provides accommodation for a large volume of animals in the course of it’s day to day work. Regular sterilization of bedding and cages is critical to ensure the health and wellbeing of animals and to comply with bio-security controls set by the government and by accepted best-practice (such as avoiding the propagation of infectious diseases).

In recent months an incumbent steam-based sterilizer system has failed on a regular basis, placing these bio-security and welfare controls at risk. Steam based machines are time consuming to build and maintain; in order to avoid an operational incident and provide biosecurity assurance as soon as possible the University has decided it should urgently procure an immediate solution, ahead of making long term plans for the replacement/upgrade of such machines.

It is believed that a new type of device – a dry-heat based steriliser – would be the most appropriate solution, as in principle this is a simpler device which could be delivered and built faster than a steam counterpart. On the basis of; - Urgent circumstances which the University could not reasonably foresee or control - It is believed there may only be one supplier on the market who has an established dry-heat proposition with a prior service record encompassing a reasonable period of time The University is notifying the market it plans to undertake a Negotiated Procedure Without Prior Call for Competition.

The University will observe a ten (10) day Stand-Still in line with the Public Contract Regulations (Scotland) 2015. Any suppliers wishing to challenge this procedure should do so with the individual stated on the notice, during this Stand-Still. Value is an estimate consisting of GBP 380k expected cost with GBP 25k contingency.